Santa_Maria_Sun_04.15.10

AT T H E M O V I E S

This Week Smokers may lose state beaches and parks

[12]

Recruiting women can be a challenge

[18]

Folklorico puts culture in motion

[20]

Have Date Night with Fey and Carell [26] The Santa Maria Valley’s Weekly Newspaper •

April 15 - April 22, 2010 • Vol. 11 No. 5 • FREE • w w w.santamariasun.com

e g a c r e t n E the

This Thisartist artist gets getsearthy earthy

[23]

Krider’s trash talking gets him on TV

[24]

Sweet: The Strawberry Festival is back

[32]

aws r d s t r a artial m d e x m the i o r M f — s r d fighte n d [8] a n o — y s e b fan st and a o C l a r MAN Cent

BY AMY AS

PHOTO COURTESY JOSH HEDGES/UFC

PHOTO COURTESY JOSH HEDGES/UFC

Welcome to the Octagon: Wanderlei Silva faces off against fellow UFC fighter Rich Franklin. In a recent interview with the Sun, Silva said he prepares mentally for fights by “praying and asking God to protect me in the ring.” He currently trains out of Las Vegas.

Octagon-athon

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Understand the evolution of the mixed martial arts craze

BY AMY ASMAN

I

t’s almost noon on a Friday outside the Spencer’s Market in Arroyo Grande—a time usually reserved for senior citizens and stay-at-home moms hoping to get in some early weekend shopping. But things are looking a little out of the ordinary today.

For starters, there’s a line of about 150 people snaking its way out the front door, which is being dutifully patrolled by two grocery baggers-turned-bouncers. A local radio station has pitched its promotional tent in the parking lot, but its classic rock tunes are being drowned out by the excited chatter of waiting fans.

Inside, men, women, and children stand squeezed between racks of fresh-baked bread and a bin of ripe watermelons, straining for a glimpse of their hero. An unsuspecting elderly man, no doubt blinded by the flash of flickering cameras, wheels his grocery cart right into the throng of gleeful gawkers.

“What’s going on? Who is he?” another curious shopper loudly whispers.

“It’s the Axe Murderer!” a fan breathlessly replies. *** Someone unfamiliar with the wild world of mixed martial arts (MMA) might have, on first instinct, called the police upon hearing who was coming into Spencer’s. But for MMA fans at the store on April 9, it was a dream come true: PRIDE champion and popular UFC fighter Wanderlei Silva made a surprise visit to the Central Coast.

“This guy created the MMA culture!” gushed one fan.

“Besides the Gracies, this is the man right here. He’s a pioneer of the sport.”

(The Gracies, by the way, are members of a prominent sporting family from Brazil known for founding Brazilian Ju-Jitsu—but more on that later.)

Also hailing from Brazil, Silva is said to have received his nickname—“The Axe Murderer”—for his aggressive fighting tactics and his steely, pre-fight stare-downs. He holds a Black Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and specializes in Muay Thai, two of the main fighting styles used in MMA. His MMA record includes 33 wins (22 by knockout and four by submission), 10 losses, and one draw.

Silva was one of the premier fighters for Pride Fighting Championships (PRIDE for short), a now defunct MMA organization based in Japan, where he held the title of Middleweight Champion (2001 to 2007) and Grand Prix Tournament winner in 2003.

“He was one of the few guys in the beginning who was able to transition from ground to stand-up, which allowed him to fight the better fighters,” explained MMA fan Matt Jimenez as he stood in line outside Spencer’s. “He’s the best.”

PHOTO BY STEVE E. MILLER

Fandemonium: Central Coast MMA fans descended on the Spencer’s Market in Arroyo Grande on April 9 to meet “The Axe Murderer.” Silva signed autographs and posed for pictures for about three hours.

Silva style: More than 20 people crowded into the Buellton Rec Center on April 10 to get some mat time with Silva. The seminar covered stand up and ground work.

Explaining the obsession Indicative of its name, mixed martial arts is a combat sport that incorporates a handful of traditions and techniques.

Fighters typically come from a wide variety of fighting backgrounds, including judo, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, wrestling, and karate.

The roots of MMA can be traced back as far as gladiator times, but modern MMA draws most of its inspiration from vale tudo, a Brazilian style that means “anything goes” in Portuguese.

The sport didn’t become popular—or even a sport, for that matter—in the United States until the 1990s, when the Ultimate Fighting Championship held its first competition.

“People wanted to know the answer to the question, ‘Would a kung fu master beat a karate master in a fight?” explained Josh Grant, owner of The Dojo, a martial arts center in Buellton.

The Dojo hosted a training seminar with Silva at the Buellton Rec Center on April 10.

“Of course, the answer is, ‘It’s not the art form, it’s the practitioner,’ but people love watching two different masters get together and, for lack of a better word, beat on each other,” Grant said.

So UFC officials set out to do just that: Pit different martial arts experts against each other and see who came out on top.

In the beginning, the UFC and its Japanese cousin, PRIDE, had very few rules when it came to fighting. There was definitely no biting or eye gouging allowed—head butting and groin shots were merely frowned upon—but otherwise the fighters were pretty much free to do what they pleased.

The lack of solid rules soon earned MMA the moniker of “human cockfighting,” and led some people, including Republican Sen. John McCain, to wage crusades against the fledgling sport.

Eventually, the backlash forced the UFC to go underground in many states, and pay-per-view ratings started to dwindle. In response to the criticism, the UFC reached out to the state ath-

MMA

continued page 11

MMA

from page 9

letic commissions and banned the more graphic tactics from its patented Octagon.

Today, the UFC has presented more than 100 fight cards. It boasts a slew of prized fighters, including Silva, the Central Coast’s own Chuck “The Iceman” Lidell, Randy “The Natural” Couture, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Anderson “The Spider” Silva, and dozens more.

And it’s surpassed both World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE) and boxing as the world’s most-watched combat sport, according to UFC.com.

So why is something that used to be compared to cockfighting so popular?

“Westerners love to watch people pummel each other,” Grant said with a sly smile.

“Honestly, the popularity comes in when everyone got bored with [WWE] and boxing, and watching the same thing over and over again for decades,” he said. “MMA took all the traditional fighting styles and became a fighting style itself with its own rule set.”

He added that he views the UFC as “50 percent skill and 50 percent show.”

Learning from the master: Christensen and a fellow MMA enthusiast take instruction from Silva at a seminar in Buellton.

“It’s doing an admirable job of straddling that line,” he explained. “But MMA will never lose [its authenticity], because it always defaults to the skill.”

PHOTOS BY STEVE E. MILLER

On the road to going pro For some people, the UFC phenomenon is more than just a source of Saturday night entertainment—it’s a career opportunity.

MMA hopefuls Travis Christensen and Joshua Schwien are currently training several days a week at Christensen’s karate dojo, CKD Academy in Santa Maria, which he owns with his sister, Heather.

“We’re pretty much working on finding any venue we can get into,” Christensen said, adding that he and Schwien are planning to fight at the end of the year. “That gives us until November to train.”

Eight months might seem like a long time to prepare for a match, but the men said they want to make sure they’re at the top of their game before they enter the cage.

“Being in the cage, there’s a lot of training, mental endurance, and preparing that goes into it,” Christensen said. “On the street, it’s easy to just go at it because there aren’t any rules. With the cage, you get in there, and it’s a true test of self and skill.”

Christensen holds a black belt in Taekwondo. He’s also spent years training in Keichu Do karate, which puts an American twist on classic Japanese karate, under Sensei Karl W. Marx. (Not the Communist, he clarified.)

When asked why he wants to go pro, Christensen said: “It’s a question of where can I progress my skill. I love teaching; sharing my knowledge has definitely kept me going through the years. But there’s only so much you can do without fighting yourself.

“I’m not a 9-to-5 person—I never have been,” he continued.

“School, all the jobs I’ve had, none of that really stuck with me. The only thing that stuck with me was martial arts. It’s my passion.”

And come November, Christensen expects to follow his passion into the cage. ❍ Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santa mariasun.com.

Air assault: Travis Christensen practices some (super) high knee kicks at his karate dojo, CKD Academy, in Santa Maria. Christensen is training to become an amateur—and eventually pro—MMA fighter.